New U.N. Chemical Weapons Report on Syria Blames Assad

After having some time to regroup, Western-backed propaganda against the Assad government of Syria regarding the alleged (and erroneous) claims of the use of chemical weapons against rebels death squads and civilians has apparently resumed.

As Reuters reports, “United Nations human rights investigators said on Tuesday they had “reasonable grounds” to believe that limited amounts of chemical weapons had been used by government forces in Syria.”

Reuters also states that “In their latest report, based on interviews with victims, medical staff and other witnesses, they said they had received allegations that both Syrian government forces and rebels had used the banned weapons, but that at least four instances related to their use by state forces.”

Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry, told a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland “There are reasonable grounds to believe that limited quantities of toxic chemicals weapons were used. It has not been possible, on the evidence available, to determine the precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrator.”

Pinheiro stated that the information he was reporting came from interviews conducted with “victims, refugees who fled some areas, and medical staff.” The interview process, as Reuters reports, involved teams “composed of more than 20 investigators, conducted 430 interviews from January 15 to May 15 among refugees in neighboring countries and by Skype with people still in Syria.”

The UN Commission of Inquiry largely contradicts earlier reports by its own UN investigators into the nature of chemical weapons’ use in Syria.

For instance, UN investigator Carla del Ponte stated to Western media outlets as far back as March that chemicals weapons were used, not by the Syrian government, but the Syrian death squads that the Western media so desperately attempts to promote as freedom fighters and peaceful protesters.

Interestingly enough, while media outlets and Western governments cling to whatever brief positive public relations stories surrounding the “rebels” that may exist, those opportunities are few and far between.

In addition, it must be pointed out the inaccurate and intentionally skewed manner in which Western media outlets, “human rights campaigners,” and Western governments gather “information” that is later parroted back to the public through those same media outlets. For instance, the reliance on “interviews” conducted with “activists,” “human rights organizations,” “victims,” “medical personnel,” and, obviously, “rebel” forces generally translates to mean one thing – interviews and reports with and from the very agents and organizations that are intent on destabilizing and overthrowing the Assad government to begin with.

Organizations like the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, operated out of the UK by an admitted member of the Syrian death squad cult, Rami Abdul Rahman, are a clear example of the types of “human rights organizations” consulted when “investigators” attempt to “gather information” on the situation on the ground in Syria.

After three short spells in prison in Syria for pro-democracy activism, Abdulrahman came to Britain in 2000 fearing a longer, fourth jail term.

“I came to Britain the day Hafez al-Assad died, and I’ll return when Bashar al-Assad goes,” Abdulrahman said, referring to Bashar’s father and predecessor Hafez, also an autocrat.

One could not fathom a more unreliable, compromised, biased source of information, yet for the past two years, his “Observatory” has served as the sole source of information for the endless torrent of propaganda emanating from the Western media. Perhaps worst of all, is that the United Nations uses this compromised, absurdly overt source of propaganda as the basis for its various reports . . . .

It is also widely known that any mainstream Western media which uses the term “activists say” to preface any transmission of information can easily be understood as having come straight from the death squads themselves. Likewise with many of the selected “victims” and “refugees,” a majority of which bring their own political agendas with them which conveniently tends to match up exactly with the agenda of the Western powers seeking to destroy Syria.

Yet, while the report accuses the Assad government of using chemical weapons on the basis of scant, dubious, and even outright erroneous evidence, it also attempts to defend the Syrian death squads. It reads, “It is possible that anti-government armed groups may access and use chemical weapons . . . though there is no compelling evidence that these groups possess such weapons or their requisite delivery systems.”

This claim is fundamentally untrue. First, as mentioned above, it directly contradicts the reports by other UN investigators such as Carla del Ponte.

The video (see here) starts with several scenes showing chemical containers with Tekkim labels (Tekkim is a Turkish chemicals company) and some lab equipment, while playing Jihadists chants in the background. A glass box then appears with two rabbits inside, with a poster on the wall behind it reading The Almighty Wind Brigade (Kateebat A Reeh Al Sarsar). A person wearing a lab mask then mixes chemicals in a beaker in the glass box, and we see some gas emitting from the beaker. About a minute later, the rabbits start to have random convulsions and then die. The person says: You saw what happened? This will be your fate, you infidel Alawites, I swear by ALLAH to make you die like these rabbits, one minute only after you inhale the gas.

The Syria Tribune also comments that “Judging from the rabbits’ reaction, the gas must be a nerve agent. The number of containers, if not a bluff, indicates ability to produce a considerable amount of this gas. Deployment could be by means of a smoke generator placed in the target area, an explosion, possibly a suicide one, of a ”chemmed” car, or simply by using a humidifier.”

In March, 2013, yet another YouTube video was released which contained a clip of a second “test” of chemical weapons on captive rabbits by the death squads.

This is quite an ironic presentation, since the Assad government has repeatedly vowed never to use chemical weapons inside Syria, while the death squads have repeatedly threatened to do just that. Indeed, in direct contrast to the tone and statements of the death squads, the Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi issued a statement several months ago saying, “No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used, and I repeat, will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria.”

Regardless, the video mentioned above also contains an alleged audio recording of a phone conversation between two Free Syrian Army fighters discussing the “details of a plan to carry out a chemical weapons attack capable of impacting an area the size of one kilometer.”

As Paul Joseph Watson writes,

The recording of the phone conversation purports to be between two FSA militants, one inside Syria and one outside of the country. Abu Hassan, the militant inside Syria, asks the person on the other end of the line to transmit a message to Sheikh Suleiman, a rebel-seized army base in Aleppo, asking for “two chemical bombs ….phosphoric” in order to “finish this whole thing.”

“I want them to be effective,” states Hassan, adding, “The radius of the strike, or reach of the gases, has to be 1km.”

The video also contains a clip of the death squads openly announcing their plans to engage in chemical weapons attacks, all the while surrounded by bottles of nitric acid and other substances.
In addition, even more circumstantial evidence points toward the possession, delivery capabilities, and use of chemical weapons by the death squads.

Back in December 2012, after the death squads managed to capture a chlorine factory inside Syria, the Syrian government actually issued a warning that the death squads might attempt to use chemical weapons of this nature in their battle to overthrow and oppress the government and people of Syria respectively. The Syrian Foreign Ministry stated, “Terrorist groups may resort to using chemical weapons against the Syrian people … after having gained control of a toxic chlorine factory.”

Thus, with the subsequent chemical weapon attack which has caused both a frothing and bumbling public relations response from the Anglo-Americans, it is interesting to note that chlorine was fingered as being one of the major ingredients.

The Syrian military is said to believe that a home-made locally-manufactured rocket was fired, containing a form of chlorine known as CL17, easily available as a swimming pool cleaner. They claim that the warhead contained a quantity of the gas, dissolved in saline solution.

. . .

CL17 is normal chlorine for swimming pools or industrial purposes. It is rated as Level 2 under the chemical weapons convention, which means it is dual purpose – it can be used as a weapon as well as for industrial or domestic purposes. Level 1 agents are chemicals whose sole use is as weapons, such as the nerve agents sarin or tabun.

There has been extensive experimentation by insurgents in Iraq in the use of chlorine, which is harmful when mixed with water to form hydrochloric acid. It vapourises quickly, meaning that in a big explosion it will evaporate; in a small blast – for instance, one delivered by a home-made rocket – it will turn into airborne droplets before dispersing quickly.

So it is likely only to produce limited casualties. In this case there were only 26 fatalities, far fewer than would be expected from a full chemical weapon attack. In short, it is easily improvised into a chemical device but not one that would be used by an army seeking mass-casualty effects. [emphasis added]

Reports by the Syrian government coincide with the accounts given by the victims of the chemical weapons attack which one can view in the video clip contained in the YouTube video mentioned above. (See here) It is also important to note that many of the victims allegedly name the Free Syrian Army and the “rebels” as the perpetrators as they are being interviewed while waiting for medical treatment.

“The Free Syrian Army hit us with a rocket,” one woman said. “We smelled an odor and everyone fell to the ground. People died where they fell . . . the kids . . . “

A young girl was also interviewed, who said, “My lungs closed and I couldn’t breathe or speak. God curse them. Everyone died on the ground. My mom and dad died. I don’t know where is my brother. God curse them. May they [FSA] all die. This is the freedom they bring us. They [FSA] want to kill everyone. I hope there remains not a single one of them [FSA] alive.”

Lastly, the UN report laughably attempts to absolve the death squads of war crimes while shifting the burden of cruelty and savage conduct to that of the Assad government. While asserting that Syrian government forces have been responsible for “committing torture, rape, forcible displacement and enforced disappearance,” no credible (and often even no incredible) evidence is ever provided to bolster the claims.

While admitting that the death squads have carried out “sentencing and execution without due process, as well as committing torture, taking hostages and pillaging,” the report hilariously states that crimes committed by the death squads “did not, however, reach the intensity and scale of those committed by government forces and affiliated militias.”

Indeed, the videos of the torture of prisoners in the hands of the death squads are legion. One need only type the relevant keywords into a YouTube search engine to be greeted with generous results.
So either the United Nations Commission of Inquiry was incredibly inept and incompetent in their inquiry, or they are actively engaged in covering up the atrocities of the death squads while framing the Assad government for crimes it did not commit thus shoring up popular support for military action by the Anglo-Americans on yet one more sovereign nation. Either way, the UN Commission of Inquiry’s latest report is an ominous sign.

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of three books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, and Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident. Turbeville has published over 200 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.